CHINA'S ALIBABA SAYS IT HAS EXPANDED INTO TAIWAN

Beijing
The Economic TimesChina's business-to-business website Alibaba said on Thursday that it had opened an office in Taiwan.

The office, Alibaba's fourth outside mainland China, will be able to better serve its 40,000 members on the island, the company said in a statement.

It will also enable more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan, who have been struggling with the saturation and slowing of Taiwan's domestic market, to grow through e-commerce, the statement said.

"The launch of our Taipei office signifies our strong commitment to invest more resources to develop the Taiwan market and help local SMEs with global trade," said David Wei, Alibaba.com's chief executive officer.

"Alibaba.com can provide Taiwan's 220,000 export-oriented SMEs with the right tools to connect with a huge pool of active international buyers and increase their competitiveness."

He said the Alibaba, which is partly owned by US Internet giant Yahoo, was also open to forming partnerships with local companies in Taiwan in the future.

Taiwan and China split in 1949 at the end of a civil war, but bilateral ties have been warming after Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang won a landslide victory in Taiwan's presidential election in March.

The two sides launched regular direct flights for the first time in nearly six decades earlier this month.